Chris Tran Launches Mezzoforte, a New Custom Cube Project
The popular hardware innovator is returning to cube modification with surface-treatment, brass emblem inlays, and a process built around changing how plastic interacts with lubricant.
Chris Tran is returning to the cube hardware space with Mezzoforte, a new custom cube project focused on surface-treated MoYu v10s and a modification approach he says has been years in the making.
The store’s first products include the Mezzoforte v10, Fortissimo v10, and Fortissimo v10 MagLev. Each is based on a MoYu WeiLong WR M 3x3 V10 and includes Tran’s custom surface treatment process, along with a brass emblem logo.
Mezzoforte marks Tran’s most public return to cube modification after years away from the industry. Tran is best known in the cubing community for founding Cubicle Labs in 2016, where he helped push forward several major hardware trends, including commercial puzzle dyeing, MagLev experimentation, and especially the early development of magnetic speedcubes.
Tran describes the new Mezzoforte process as an attempt to change the surface properties of plastic itself, rather than relying only on traditional lubrication. According to the store’s explanation, the process increases the surface energy of the plastic and creates microscopic pores that allow the surface to interact with and retain lubricant differently.
The result, according to the product page, is a cube with a “sandy, light and papery” feel that breaks in over time into something smoother and more controllable.
The higher-end Fortissimo process builds on that idea by adding a hard, wear-resistant material into the treated surface. Tran describes the Fortissimo v10 as faster, more responsive, and more tactile, while the MagLev version is listed as the shop’s fastest offering.
The project fits into Tran’s longer history as one of speedcubing’s most influential hardware experimenters. At Cubicle Labs, his work helped accelerate the rise of magnetic cubes, which became one of the most important hardware shifts in modern speedcubing. He later founded Angstrom Research, a Cubicle.us subsidiary focused on more specialized puzzle setups, coatings, magnet work, and custom modifications.
Angstrom’s influence also continued through lubes and setup products that remained popular well after Tran stepped away from daily cube hardware work. Angstrom Gravitas, released in 2018, remains one of the most recognizable premium lubes in cubing and is still used in many top-level and high-end cube setups.
Tran’s new store appears to continue that same philosophy, but with a narrower focus: small-batch, surface-treated cubes built around feel, texture, and lubricant interaction.
On the Mezzoforte site, he writes that he spent more than a decade trying to tune the surface properties of plastic, experimenting with processes that were sometimes temporary, inconsistent, or difficult to produce at scale, and continued thinking about the problem after moving into software engineering.
Now, Mezzoforte gives him a new platform to bring those experiments back to the public.
The first Mezzoforte products are already listed online, with the Mezzoforte v10 priced at $45 and the Fortissimo v10 and Fortissimo v10 MagLev listed at $55.